Reality TV and heterosexuality

Although reality television has been a subject of research in the humanities and social sciences, few studies have focused on the ways in which such television content is produced. That is therefore the dimension that this article explores, to gain insight into the conditions of production of a media discourse on heterosexual marriage in Poland. The article is based on the ethnography of the transnational circulation of the Married at First Sight TV format and its local adaptation in Poland. It analyses the mediations at work in the circulation of this commodity and the way in which the people involved in the production of the Polish version give meaning to what they do. Finally, it looks at how the Polish series participates in the reification of heterosexual marriage as a normative ideal.